Top Benefits of Using FSM Software for Property Management

With the rising challenges of a troubled economy, inflationary pressures, worker shortages, and a volatile real estate market, managing property is becoming increasingly difficult. Fortunately, field service management software can help cut costs, optimize workforce productivity, and provide fast service to elevate tenants’ living experiences. In this blog, we’ll cover the basics of using field service software for property management and how AI-driven automation can benefit your organization.

What is Field Service Software for Property Management?

Field service software is used in the property management industry to optimize complex, time-consuming, and expensive workflows such as repair and maintenance scheduling, turnover service, and reporting. Field service management software includes features such as AI-driven maintenance scheduling, real-time route optimization, augmented reality (AR) service capabilities, and intelligent analytics. Utilizing this software empowers facilities managers to embrace digital transformation and provides several property management benefits. Read on to learn more about the benefits of transforming your property management workflows.

Top Benefits of Using FSM Software for Property Management

With increasing difficulty sourcing fieldworkers, rising tenant expectations, and the need to increase profitability, facilities managers need quick and reliable solutions to succeed in the modern real estate market. Field service management software leverages AI-driven automation to improve your property management and your bottom line. Let’s dive into the top benefits of using field service management software for your properties. 

• Automate Scheduling & Optimize Turnover Service

It’s no secret that property management involves time-sensitive workflows, including scheduling rental repairs, fulfilling maintenance requests, and completing turnover service. Manually managing these tasks can be inefficient, wasting precious time and resources that are critical to your business. 

When a tenant notifies their property management company about a broken or malfunctioning appliance, you’re on the clock to figure out a solution. Every day and even every hour of appliance downtime is an inconvenience for tenants. However, finding an available technician to schedule a service appointment and confirm the tenant's availability can be a slow process. That’s where field service management software with AI-driven scheduling comes in. With automated scheduling, tenants can request maintenance directly within the field service application. A qualified service technician is automatically scheduled for the service job based on their skill set, availability, location, and more. By removing friction from the scheduling process, it becomes streamlined and efficient. 

Once a request for service has been scheduled, field service technicians can utilize real-time route optimization within the application. While often overlooked, route optimization is a critical component of rental repairs, maintenance requests, and turnover service. Field service warehouses are not always in the proximity of a tenant’s location, and technicians are often tasked with multiple service jobs in a single afternoon. However, with real-time route optimization, technicians’ visits are organized in the most efficient order, including when and where they need to retrieve parts. Likewise, real-time route optimization is proven to decrease truck rolls by 20% while increasing the number of service jobs that a technician can complete in one day. This means safer technicians and satisfied tenants.

AI-driven scheduling and route optimization improve your ability to conduct quick and efficient turnover service. Instead of manually scheduling maintenance between tenants, property managers can rely on automated scheduling to take care of the grunt work. This speeds up the turnover process and reduces the time that units are left vacant between tenants. And filling vacant properties faster helps companies collect rent sooner, improving cash flow and ultimately profits. 

• Empower Technicians with Augmented Reality

Advancements in service technology empower technicians to troubleshoot repairs remotely. With Augmented Reality (AR), technicians can illustrate precisely where and how tenants can resolve an issue, without ever stepping foot on the property. Tenants are able to view the 3D instructions overlaid in their environment, making it simple to follow along.

In addition, technicians can use the same technology to help troubleshoot maintenance or repair issues they’re not familiar with. By accessing virtual equipment repair information on the job, technicians are able to complete even complicated service jobs on the first try. This means they don’t have to make redundant and expensive repeat visits for the same issue. A win-win for facilities managers and tenants. 

• Expand Your Workforce 

With a growing labor shortage, accessing qualified service technicians to fulfill maintenance requests is harder than ever before. Extended equipment downtime creates a terrible tenant experience, but finding technicians is necessary for repairing tenant’s appliances. 

Utilizing field service management software from ServicePower provides you access to service technicians exactly when you need them. ServicePower has a certified contractor network of over 4,000 fully vetted technicians. This enables you to tap into these expert technicians via AI scheduling within the field service app. Moreover, IoT-driven predictive maintenance can even identify potential issues in tenant appliances before they break. Technicians use field service software to remotely monitor performance metrics and proactively maintain appliances so they never require downtime. 

• Enhance the Tenant Experience

 Tenants expect fast and reliable service. They also want visibility into the problem resolution and an open line of communication throughout the repair process. With field service management software, tenants can request service directly within the application, and rest assured that a technician will be available. Once the best technician is scheduled for the repair, tenants are able to communicate with the technicians via in-app messaging regarding service details or ETAs. Utilizing advanced mobile software and AR features, technicians can resolve the tenant’s issue on the first try. This significantly improves the tenant experience, improving satisfaction and retention. 

• Utilize Data-Driven Insights

 Leveraging analytics for data-driven decision-making is important for any modern organization. Automating data collection helps make this possible. For instance, property managers can easily track which properties consistently require the most maintenance, understand if there are recurring patterns in the types of repair issues, and also identify opportunities for optimizing rental repair or turnover costs. In the modern world, data is invaluable to a company’s success, and automated data collection ensures that information is secure, available, and insightful.  

Start Investing in Better Property Management

 Property management doesn’t need to be complicated. Technology is advanced enough to help you complete tenant repair, maintenance, and turnover workflows so that you can focus on bigger-picture strategies. Utilizing field service software empowers you to decrease maintenance and turnover costs while improving tenant retention so you can allocate funds toward growth, expansion, and improvement. 

 In the competitive property management industry, there’s no time to waste. 

 Discover how ServicePower can transform your property and facilities management today.